“The “Just Ask” model [for funding cultural production] encourages a different kind of content. Instead of challenging creators to figure out how to get the highest view counts, creators have to puzzle out how to make the most valuable content. How can I create something that someone will watch and say, “I would feel better if I had paid for that.”

Make content people love and cultivate an honest relationship with [y]our community that includes discussion of finances.”

March122015

March092015

March052015

15:30

“Some things that almost everyone regrets—like Farmville and cigarette smoking—are billion dollar industries. Other things are undervalued: empathy, creative thinking, and even simple activities like picnics or learning a musical instrument. Why is that? Is it human nature? Or have we been neglecting to [incentivize people doing] what they really want in their lives?”

February142015

February112015

“Equality before the law is key to any democracy. Here’s where [the idea that different laws apply in the digital than in the physical sphere] is problematic. It claims a different, more liberal ruleset for skilled, tech-savvy people.

[It] has created an environment where the idea of government and with it often the ideas of democracy have been put up for debate to be replaced with … well … not much: Software that skilled people can use to defend themselves against other skilled people who might have even better software.”

February052015

04:18

“The policies that prevail are those with business-models, that create a large pool of wealth for a small number of players, enough money in few enough hands that there’s some left over to lobby for the continuation of that policy.”

“Everything I do in my life, the furious amount of activity I propel myself into, is because at heart I feel completely inert, like I’m 100 miles from any human contact and totally alone and kind of comfortable and righteous in that place, but of course, that’s sort of a kind of depression. I need really high stakes to get out of that place. Hence, my entire career.”

“[DPR's defense attorney] Dratel argued that Ross Ulbricht had been set up—that his computer was vulnerable to being hacked while torrenting an episode of the Colbert Report through the library’s public Wi-Fi, and that Mark Karpeles, CEO of [now-defunct Bitcoin exchange] Mt. Gox, had the means and the motives (financial benefit by manipulating the bitcoin market). Dratel also argued that the USB thumb drive on Ulbricht’s nightstand that prosecution claimed contained backed-up copies of files from Ulbricht’s computer wasn’t a backup, but rather the origin of the files on Ulbricht’s laptop—that the thumb drive had been given to him by the real DPR as part of the set-up.”